The Inequality Machine

Jan 10, 2025 11:10 AM

Author:Paul Tough

'Indelible and extraordinary, a powerful reckoning with just how far we've allowed reality to drift from our ideals.' Tara Westover, New York Times Book Review

We're told that universities are our greatest driver of social mobility. But it's a lie.

The Inequality Machine is a damning exposé of how the university system ingrains injustice at every level of American society.

Paul Tough, bestselling author of How Children Succeed, exposes a world where small-town colleges go bust, while the most prestigious raise billions every year; where overstretched admissions officers are forced to pick rich candidates over smart ones; where black and working-class students are left to sink or swim on uncaring campuses. Along the way, he uncovers cutting-edge research from the academics leading the way to a new kind of university - one where students succeed not because of their background, but because of the quality of their minds.

The result is a call-to-arms for universities that work for everyone, and a manual for how we can make it happen.

'Humanizes the process of higher education . . . Fascinating stories about efforts to remediate class disparities in higher education' New Yorker

Reviews

A readable kiss-and-tell study . . . Tough finds that higher education, which has the potential to increase upward mobility, has become an obstacle that perpetuates social rigidity. The poor remain poor and the rich get richer . . . this study is laced with deep anger.

—— Times Higher Education

Humanizes the process of higher education . . . Fascinating stories about efforts to remediate class disparities in higher education

—— New Yorker

[Tough] writes movingly about students who are trying to navigate the confounding, expensive, and intimidating process of getting into and staying in college.

—— WIRED

Important . . . Among his book's many vital contributions are its portraits of schools and programs that model a better way.

—— New York Times

Paul Tough is a beautiful reporter and writer and a deeply moral guide to understanding the situation of children in our heartless meritocracy . . . A great book that should start a necessary conversation.

—— George Packer, author of THE UNWINDING

A stunning piece of work . . . A completely absorbing narrative with some very surprising, trenchant analysis . . . A devastating report card on the American dream. It's just a very special book.

—— Michael Pollen, author of HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND

A deeply reported and damning portrait of fraying American social mobility . . . A clear-eyed portrait of what a stacked game it really is.

—— Quartz

Gorgeously reported. Vividly written. Utterly lucid. Paul Tough jumps skilfully between deeply engaging personal narratives and the bigger truths of higher education. The way he tells the stories of these students, it's impossible not to care about them and get angry on their behalf.

—— Ira Glass, host of NPR'S THIS AMERICAN LIFE

A comprehensive, moving account of the inequalities that block many poor, minority and first-generation students from realizing the benefits of a college education.

—— Forbes

[Tough's] urgent account combines cogent data and artful storytelling to show how higher education has veered from its meritocratic ideals to exacerbate society's inequality.

—— Editors' Choice , New York Times Book Review

Indelible and extraordinary, a powerful reckoning with just how far we’ve allowed reality to drift from our ideals. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of higher education to the present moment.

—— Tara Westover, New York Times Book Review

In this fascinating study, education journalist Tough argues persuasively that access to an elite college education, which in the US is popularly believed to be a meritocratically distributed social equalizer, is in fact distributed in ways that reinforce existing economic divisions . . . This well-written and persuasive book is likely to make a splash.

—— Publishers Weekly

The Panic Years made me laugh and it made me cry. There’s a rare tenderness to this book that comes from not having felt seen before. It’s for our generation, and Nell gets it. She understands and respects us.

—— Rhiannon Cosslett

A wonderful, candid memoir about the personal and political implications of motherhood, full of humour and fizzing prose. I loved it.

—— Luiza Sauma, author of Flesh and Bone and Everything You Ever Wanted

For someone older, in a different set of panic years altogether, part of the pleasure of this book lies in reminiscence, reflecting and reframing. But it’s also galvanising, engaging and enraging. The personal is political, philosophical, emotional, and very funny. I resisted the urge to highlight everything that made me laugh, or think, or fired me up, because the whole thing would have been one big neon block
—— Jenny Landreth

Breathtakingly good

—— Lauren Bravo

Informs, educates, entertains... This book will resonate with so many readers.

—— Red's top picks of 2020

Brilliant

—— Grazia

A must-read... sharp, funny, it chronicles all of the big decisions a woman is expected to make between the ages of 25-40: where to live, if they should marry, what to do with one's career. And that other biggie: to have a baby or not.

—— Culture Whisper

Ab-definingly funny, The Panic Years captures the female experience perfectly. Discussing all of the large, looming decisions women have to make between their late 20s and early 40s, this is a must-read.

—— ES Magazine

Offers advice and feminist learnings on how to survive when it feels like everyone around you is becoming a parent.

—— Cosmopolitan

Wise, perceptive and refreshingly open...a memoir that feels inherently personal to womanhood and what being a woman means.

—— Culturefly

[An] insightful memoir

—— Joanne Finney , Good Housekeeping

Bracingly honest...big-hearted... [and] page-turningly compelling

—— Holly Williams , Observer

Some Body To Love is an honest and thoughtful memoir that touches on difficult contemporary topics . . . Incredibly moving and very, very powerfu

—— Monocle

A powerful treatise on pain and love, this is an honest, moving and authentic examination of the end of a relationship, and the way our lives can fracture and recover from sudden, seismic shifts. Heminsley's writing is sharply resonant - you don't have to share her experiences to be struck by her observations about letting go with love, and how we can find strength in self-love too

—— SheerLuxe, *Books of the Year*

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